Mages
Who They Are All those with an affinity to chaos at a young age are brought to their lords on punishment of food being retracted from the entire family. The lords, in turn, would send them to Eramu, the mage capital of Atalan, to start their mage training. Training can range from learning how to control magic to learning how to manipulate it to their whims. Mages also, however, have the liberty and are encouraged to learn strategies and tactics to assist their lords and the armies they command. Due to this, all mages are eventually sent to a lord in "contracts," whereas Eramu "rents" their mages to lords in return for cooperation and jurisdiction in all things chaos. This also includes witch hunting as well as hunting those who seek to destroy the mage society that exists today. Compared to 5E Mages are weaker in spells, for if they cast powerful spells, it would attract chaos beasts and make the chaos environment to that which would be uncontrollable. Due to this, most mages seldom use magic at all, and only use it if it is absolutely necessary to. They instead provide other services to their lords, such as bookkeeping and keeping the chaos in their realm under check. This is where mages who learn strategies and good tactics comes into play; mages who live long enough and provide enough success to a lord is allowed to return to Eramu to continue their studies, as Eramu is the one place where chaos does not get out of control due to all the mages controlling the chaos environment there. ----- Class The Mage subclass follows the 5e wizard class but will replace all wizard archetypes with the wild sorcerer archetype that is changed to fit the theme and power of chaos. Alongside normal 5e wizard proficiency, Eramu mages has proficiency in the short sword. Chaos Magic Your innate magic comes from the wild forces of chaos that underlie the order of creation. You might have endured exposure to some form of raw magic, perhaps through a planar portal leading to Limbo, the Elemental Planes, or the mysterious Far Realm. Perhaps you were blessed by a powerful fey creature or marked by a demon. Or your magic could be a fluke of your birth, with no apparent cause or reason. However it came to be, this chaotic magic churns within you, waiting for any outlet. Drawbacks at any time you use chaos, you may unintentionally lose control of the chaos environment. Read "Chaos Surge" below. In addition, there are severe drawbacks in using spell slots as listed in the table below. Quick Mage Class Summary LVL 1: College Focus Archetype, Arcane Recovery, & Chaos Surge LVL 2: Magic Color & Tides of Chaos LVL 3: 2nd LVL Spell Slot LVL 4: ASI LVL 5: 3rd LVL Spell Slot / Advanced Magic Color LVL 6: College Focus Archetype+ LVL 7: 4th LVL Spell Slot LVL 8: ASI LVL 9: 5th LVL Spell Slot LVL 10: College Focus Archetype++ (LVL 1) College Focus Alongside 5e Wizard Classes For Mage Class You may choose one college focus as your major in the list below. The major should shape what your character acts, knows, and would take as spells in regards to the major chosen. College Focus: Tactics The most common out of all college majors, students learn all sorts of strategies and tactics relating all the way to 500 B.C.W. Starting at 1st level, your keen ability to assess tactical situations allows you to act quickly in battle. You can give yourself a bonus to your initiative rolls equal to your Intelligence modifier. You are proficient in creating and carrying out strategies among other commanders before battle, and you may give advantage to your lord when it comes to commanding (tactics) during a battle. Additionally, you have a 1d6 bardic inspiration roll representing giving tactical advice to an ally in 60 feet once per long rest. At 6th level, the mage may add onto any gambits that any battalions attempt in a 60 ft radius, increasing all die by one and the max die by one (max of 4d6 becomes a max of 5d6.) The amount of bardic inspiration die increases to half their intelligence modifier. At 10th level, the mage drafts a master thesis, and creates his own personal strategy, tactic, or gambit, and is able to efficiently relay it onto a battalion. The amount of bardic inspiration increases to their full intelligence modifier. College Focus: Dueling A recent trend in the century would be how the students would openly duel each other in Eramu. One valedictorian would say that the best way to ensure your survival in the battlefield is to wield a sword in hand. This college focus gives you light armor proficient and weapon proficiency in one martial weapon. Starting at 1st level, when you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls with that weapon. Additionally, wielding a wand or a book in your off hand suffices enough for somatic components and does not count as a weapon. Depending on your color, you may enhance your weapon and any other one weapon with your color's element, granting it a boon. For most, it will be a +1 (color / element) weapon. At 6th level, the mage would be a beacon of strength for the troops under their command. If the mage attacks another creature with a melee attack or melee cantrip, all adjacent friendly battalions gain advantage during that turn on their attack rolls. Additionally, if the mage chooses to attack with a melee attack or melee cantrip, they may cast any spell as a bonus action aside from another melee cantrip. At 10th level, the mage masters the art of infusing magic with his dueling techniques, and creates a dual-blade. A dual blade is a cantrip that is learned to combine booming blade and green flame blade together in one cantrip. College Focus: Court One of the top three majors taught is diplomacy and how to hold a court for a noble. You learn the about several major lords in Atalan. At 1st level, you gain advantage in persuasion when talking in a court or towards a noble. Additionally, you have advantage when it comes to learning about other countries and their nobility, and know all the lords in your starting realm. If your lord has one or more holdings or vassals, you gain the ability called "Coerce Subjects," in which you may curry favors or even extort village elders / lords / leaders into giving extra income or troops within reasonable time once per long rest through several means your character would know in their downtime. Additionally, they have expertise in one skill of their choice. At 6th level, you gain the ability "Cutting Words," with a 1d8 die, and you are able to use it as many times as 1+ your intelligence modifier. At 10th level, you are known to be a legendary mage with a way with words. Even a letter to a lord is able to cause enough fear to force him to surrender. You gain expertise in the intimidation and persuasion skills. You are also able to command lower ranked nobles in complying with your requests or demands with elegance, efficiency, and skill, as well as knowing if they are lying through speaking with them or by reading a letter. College Focus: Chaos Elements An uncommon major in Eramu, mages who focus on this have better control over chaos in general. Starting at 1st level, they can intentionally raise the chaos environments to higher levels then most mages can. Mages who specialize in this major can easily manipulate water, earth, and, to a lesser extent, fire, easier. When casting a spell that uses one of these elements, the drawback of using a spell slot is halved. A mage whose color matches an element, they may create stronger spells then usual. At 6th level, you are able to determine what your roll on the chaos surge table will do. Before this happens, you can bend chaos to create a new chaos surge, overwriting the old one. You must take the new chaos surge roll. There is no limit to how many times you may do this, aside from bending chaos once per turn. Additionally, you may add half your intelligence modifier as one of your color elements attacks on any spell (ie. +2 fire damage on any spell if you are a Red mage with a +4 intelligence modifier.) At 10th level, you are a master at casting many more spells then what your opponents may cast. You gain +1 spell slots in the table before hitting the drawback threshold. For example, you may now cast two 3rd level spell slots before suffering a chance at a drawback. Additionally, you may unleash two color elements or one color element with full intelligence modifier to any spell attack. Lastly, you may create a masterwork spell that only you know and could ever teach to others. Chaos Surge Level Starting at 1st level, your spell casting can unleash surges of chaos energy. Immediately after you cast any spell of 1st level or higher, there is a chance that you lose control of the chaos environment around you. Depending on the circumstances, the DM may tell you to roll on the Chaos Surge table to create a random magical effect. A Chaos Surge can happen once per turn. Mage Magic Colors Level Starting at 2nd level, after ample real world applications of the lessons they've learned in college, a mage may fully utilize a magic color to enhance and even create new spells in their color. Most mages specializes in at least two colors. Rarely does a mage ever graduate in more then three colors, and prodigies graduate in a rainbow color. The colors are as below: Red: Fire Blue: Water Purple: Chaos, Conjuration, and Divination Brown: Earth Yellow: Lightning Orange: Enchantment Green: Herbs and Healing Pink: Alchemy and Transmutation Gray: Gravity and Motion Black: Darkness White: Light, Illusion, Thunder, and Sound Rainbow: All colors An example of spell creation is being a Brown and Gray mage, and being able to cast "Concussive Blast," a cone of earth that moves opponents back. A rainbow mage will have no real advantage aside from being able to pick any spells. Having more colors will result in weaker spell creations if you choose to do so. Spell Creation Rules When creating a spell, the spell should match at least one of your colors, and can contain elements any of your colors. The spell must be equal to or weaker then the spell you are basing it off of. If the spell is completely original, it must be a little weaker but on par with other spells of that spell level. Additionally, if you choose to create a spell for your level, you only learn one spell (Normal mages learn two spells every level.) Advanced Mage Colors (5th Level) As per the current spell creation rules, you may choose two spells that were created and further refine them to be stronger then other spells of that spell level within reason. An example is Concussive Blast being refined from a 1d6 die to a 2d6 die (It was based on Burning Hands, which is 3d6) while also forcibly moving creatures 15 ft away. Tides of Chaos Level Starting at 2nd level, you can manipulate the forces of chance and chaos to gain advantage on one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. Once you do so, you must finish a long rest before you can use this feature again. Any time before you regain the use of this feature, the DM can have you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher. You then regain the use of this feature.